The baseball writers nailed it.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, rightfully, were not selected for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Tuesday when the final voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America was announced.
But David Ortiz — best known as Big Papi — was elected with 77.9% of the vote.
It was the right choice.
It was the only right choice.
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Many fans — and a good chunk of writers — wanted Ortiz excluded, along with Bonds and Clemens, for their alleged use of steroids or performance enhancing substances. The naysayers claim there overwhelming evidence linking the three to illegal substances.
And that’s true for Bonds and Clemens.
For starters, both got better as they aged. Bonds hit more home runs after turning 34 than Gary Carter — a Hall of Fame catcher — hit in his entire career and Clemens had a career-best 1.87 ERA at the age of 42.
Plus, according to the definitive book on Balco scandal,Bonds’ head size grew from a 7 1/8 to 7 3/4 and his shoe size increased from 10 1/2 to 13.
In the case of Big Papi, there was only a single test result that linked him to steroid use.
And the accuracy of that test has since been largely refuted.
The writers made a clear statement years ago that users of steroids or PEDs would have little to no chance of receiving enough support for induction. Rafael Palmeiro, who had 3,020 hits and 569 homers, was the poster child for that when he appeared on a ballot for the first time in 2011.
Despite his lofty stats — certainly worthy of the Hall — Palmeiro was taken off the ballot after the 2014 vote was announced when he received fewer than 5% of the vote.
Palmeiro, who was suspended in 2005 after testing positive, was implicated in the Mitchell Report, a 2007 report which followed a 20-month investigation into the illegal use of steroids and other performance enhancing substances by players in Major League Baseball.
Of course, Palmeiro had plenty of company in the Mitchell Report.
Clemens was included.
So was Bonds.
In all, 89 players were included in the Mitchell Report.
Ortiz, however, was not one of them.
Nonetheless, he has long been included in the conversation about the use of steroids and PEDs by players. Allegedly, he was one of more than 100 players who were said to have tested positive during survey testing during spring training in 2003.
When the results of those were reported in 2009 by the New York Times, their accuracy was immediately called into question by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association,the players union.
In 2016, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred even said it was “entirely possible” that Ortiz – and the others – did not test positive and that there were “legitimate scientific questions about whether or not those were truly positives.” He went on to say, “Those particular tests were inconclusive because it was hard to distinguish between certain substances that were legal, available over the counter and not banned under our program.”
In other words, it is not clear that Big Papi – or any the alleged positive tests from 2003 – actually used any illegal substance.
Ortiz denied ever using anything and, simply put, the accuracy of the “evidence” that suggested otherwise seems questionable at best.
With little to no reliable evidence suggesting otherwise, it would be hard to use steroid use – alleged at that – to keep Ortiz out of the Hall of Fame.
I was prepared for Bonds’ and Clemens’ inclusion before Tuesday’s vote was announced. In their final year on the Writers’ ballot, both had hovered above 75% in the public ballots, but fell dramatically when the anonymous ballots were counted.
Bonds finished 66% of the vote and Clemens totaled 65.2%.
Had they gotten in, my rationalization was that Bonds was a 400-400 player — 400 homers and 400 stolen bases before he began— allegedly— taking illegal substances. His numbers would’ve have made him a first ballot Hall of Famer anyway.
And Clemens had already won more than 200 games before former trainer Brian McNamee said that in 1998 he injected Clemens with an illegal substance.
So if they had Hall of Fame-caliber numbers before their — alleged — use of illegal substances began, why keep them out?
Because it’s clear they broke the rules.
That’s why Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson aren’t in the Hall of Fame. Both broke the rules — they gambled on the game.
I’m not being pious. I’m not going to swear off baseball if Bonds and Clemens are eventually elected, which could come as early as December when an era committee could vote them in.
I love the game too much for that.
I’m just doing my small part to protect the integrity of the most distinguished of the halls of fame.
That’s not to say Baseball’s Hall of Fame is filled with choirboys. Clearly, it’s home to a number of shady characters.
For example, Baseball’s first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis was believed to be a racist and said to doeverything in his power to prevent integration.
Cap Anson, who collected more than 3,000 hits in his career, was known as an avowed racist. Anson, whose playing career stretched from 1871 to 1897, refused to take the field against teams with black players. He is considered by many historians to have drawn baseball’s “color line” which remained in place until Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
And Babe Ruth — arguably, the most important player in the history of the game — was certainly no angel. “The Bambino” was a notorious womanizer and said to have punched an umpire during a game.
I’m not suggesting we remove all players with a checkered past out of the Hall of Fame. There’s not even a policy in place for removing players.
But, we know about the transgressions of Bonds, Clemens and the others beforehand. And the Hall of Fame asks eligible writers to consider each player’s integrity and character before casting ballots.
That’s exactly what members of the BBWAA have done in the cases of Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Palmeiro and the rest of players implicated in the Mitchell Report, which is MLB’s bible when it comes to steroid use.
Ortiz was not listed in the Mitchell Report and the only evidence linking him to steroid use has largely been debunked.
And the writers got it right.
Write to Frank Jolley at frank.jolley@dailycommercial.com.
